ifeelbetter

Here's my thoughts on TV....

Downton Abbey. So this new series is almost done. I have to admit that I put off watching the show because on the one hand I was very likely to get addicted in a major way and on the other I was worried that it might not warm the same cockles of my heart that, say, South Riding or North and South can. I was wary in very paradoxical ways so I postponed. But then I watched the first series and I'm not the sort of person who can be reasoned or patient with new things so I immediately watched what second series the internet could provide.

To me, this is the problem: this show is a trashy soap opera with a higher budget. The first series masked it better than the second, I think. But now every episode is all ANOTHER SPECIAL EPISODE THAT YOU CAN'T MISS YOU CRAZY PERSON WHY WOULD YOU MISS IT???? in tone but absolutely nothing happens. I wanted to start a drinking game where you have to take a shot every time the Irish-socialist-love interest says, "Is it because I'm the chauffeur?" to Sybil. You would be plastered in five minutes. Or every time someone says, "The war changed [me/us/this house/society/the world/everything/nothing]."

But I don't think you need it to be SO HISTORICAL and SO HONEST EMOTIONALLY for it to be a great show. I loved it. But mostly because the cast is like this:

than because of anything else.

Once Upon A Time. I actually hated the trailer. I saw it, I scrunched my face up into my least appetizing version of disgust, and vowed never to watch it. Then I watched it.

IT IS AWESOME. I can't believe how awesome it is. It feels like a sort of TV show we haven't had on television for a loooong time, like the genre of the Buffy or the Xena has finally come back to us. I mean, this--like those that I just mentioned--should not work. It's clunky, it's loaded with requisite backstory, it has the worst special effects this side of Neverwhere, and YET. It's awesome. It's awesome the way the original miniseries of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was awesome. Like, the kind of awesome that means you BUY IT when there are people in giant Beaver suits and might even scream in terror when a dude who actually barks turns the screen red with his rage.

We're only three episodes in, though. Anything could happen. My current verdict is that it's a cross between Xena and Twin Peaks.

Grimm. Sadly, it's happening at the same time as Once Upon A Time, which is superior. It does have that early-days of Supernatural vibe, though, and that's lovely.

Also.